Review from Tybee Island Inn Guestbook

The little yellow house reached out to me, the feathers of its buttery cheer extending in a handshake, the kind that swaddled me with security. My feet stopped with the awe of my eyes before the porch. The giant oak with its Spanish moss-draped branch visiting from next door welcomed me with a gentle bow. It was paid tribute with creative garden accents and a bubbling fountain. My first impression was that I seemed to be coming home. I had left my house, my lovely haven of residence, and was visiting another one full of enveloping charm and warm thoughtfulness. It is a feeling I would wish on anyone, as though Johnny Mercer’s “Skylark” had led me to a place of such serenity. Yes, before I even stepped inside, the ambience of the Tybee Island Inn had come outside with a greeting smile.

As soon as we walked through the door, I was reminded once more of the sensation of coming home. The inn’s owners, the delightfully friendly Kilday’s Lloyd and Cathy, made us feel like family. We sank into the lush surroundings of the antique and nautically inspired living room, exchanging excited smiles that made us feel like children with all of the candy in the world, a jewel in the discovery of memorably perfect experiences.

Our room, the distinguished Captain’s suite, is mostly beyond the power of written description. Lloyd led us through its private screened-in patio to indulge our eyes and weary traveling selves with the ultimate feast of comfort and generosity. Soft lamps lit the historically significant bomb shelter, revealing modern conveniences melded with unique accents from the past, even part of an attraction at the old Tybee carnival. We spiraled up a restored staircase, reminding me of the one in the Tybee lighthouse I adore, to discover our luxurious private bathroom, completed by a copper bath that spoke to me with majesty, allowing a view of North Carolina’s “Old Baldy” lighthouse at dusk. When the lights were dimmed, reflecting off of the copper hue of the tub and the painting, it almost appeared real.

Our week’s stay felt too ephemeral, but we experienced the greatest possible way to love a place as if it were a person. Mornings awakened us not by alarm clocks, but the smell of a delicious homemade breakfast. The staff catered to the hungry whim of every person fortunate enough to stay there with delicious food finery, different each morning and brought to us out in the beautiful gazebo. And the afternoons greeted us, sleepy from the sun, with another treat of freshly baked confections. Every day we were there, Cathy and Lloyd did everything possible to see that we had one of the best vacations of our lives. We accomplished what we once thought impossible through their kindness and care. We were sewn into the quilt of Tybee’s removed charm and breathed along with the rolling waves and clinging sand minutes away and became part of Tybee’s heart in the sky, the sun. We were welcomed, warmly accepted and gently released back to our normal lives. This type of relaxation will become another close ritual between my mother and me. We will return, running up to the front door as if greeting an old friend.

Thank you, Cathy, Lloyd and everyone at the inn. In preserving a piece of history, you have presented the utmost charm we possess in the South with your own haven that instills the magic of Tybee Time and wraps about the heart a feeling of finding one’s second home that I know your visitors have already and will come to find as long as the Tybee Island Inn remains.